This report includes comments on financial audits of government agencies in the Health sector. In 2010-11, Ambulance Officers spent an extra 77,200 hours waiting at emergency departments for patients to transfer to hospital care. In 2010-11, only 66 per cent of patients were moved from the emergency department to an inpatient bed within eight hours of their arrival. This is significantly down on last year’s 73 per cent and well below the 80 per cent target.

We found that hospitals are generally able to deploy their VMOs and staff specialists to be at the place and time required. However, a hospital’s ability to manage supply and demand at a local level is limited. This limitation will become more critical with the current national health reforms when public hospital funding will depend on their ability to set and meet activity targets and priorities. NSW Health cannot be sure that all payments made to VMOs are for agreed and delivered services. Across the hospitals visited we found limited checking of VMO claims for payment, limited quality information on staff specialist activities and limited hospital-level analysis of trends or inconsistencies in activities and treatments.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #219 - released 14 December 2011

Overall radiotherapy services are managed in a reasonably efficient and effective manner. Much is being done to further improve efficiency and effectiveness, and more can be done. While New South Wales has a number of well-established radiotherapy treatment centres, the high capital cost limits their availability in all hospitals. Some patients need to travel long distances and be away from their homes for up to seven weeks. The projected growth in demand for radiotherapy services will further challenge NSW Health and it needs to more clearly demonstrate how it will have the right facilities in the right place at the right time.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #188 - released 23 June 2009

We found no significant difference in the funding of government and opposition electorates. However, more money was given to electorates that were safely held by the major parties. These seats received $1.29 for every dollar given to marginal and independent seats with government marginals getting the least. Electorates also receive different levels of funding according to which region they are in. Such variations may reflect valid agency objectives such as meeting State Plan targets or addressing socio-economic disadvantage.

But while agencies publish who gets what, they do not adequately evaluate or explain what grant programs have achieved. As a result, there is a risk that New South Wales may not get the best value for its spending. We recommend that agencies regularly evaluate their grant programs and publish the results.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #186 - released 6 May 2009

The Ambulance Service of New South Wales has substantially implemented the 28 recommendations of the 2001 audit report that it accepted. It has also introduced significant new initiatives to improve performance that were not part of the 2001 recommendations. It has made substantial changes to its organisation and operations to implement these changes. Many of the changes are still proceeding. The Service has addressed a key finding of the 2001 audit report - that it did not have adequate, relevant or credible management data for decision making. The Service now has five years of operational data from the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #167 - released 6 June 2007